Field of the Invention
At least one example in accordance with the present invention relates generally to uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
Discussion of Related Art
Electrical appliances (e.g., office or home equipment, measuring instruments, medical devices, datacenter equipment such as routers and servers, etc.) may be configured to receive and operate on AC or DC power from an AC or DC source. Such electrical appliances are commonly coupled to an AC or DC power outlet that provides AC or DC power to the appliance from an AC or DC source. The power outlet may be one of a plurality of power outlets of a power distribution unit (e.g., a power strip). The AC or DC power received by an appliance from a power outlet may be provided directly to the appliance from the outlet or may first be conditioned via an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) coupled between the power outlet and the appliance.
The use of a power device, such as a UPS, to provide regulated, uninterrupted power for sensitive and/or critical loads, such as computer systems, datacenter equipment, and other data processing systems, is known. In general, a UPS includes, or is connected to, both a primary source of power and an alternate source of power where the alternate source of power can be employed to supply power to the electrical load when the primary source is not available (i.e., in a backup mode of operation). Often, the primary source of power is an AC power source such as power supplied from an electric utility. The alternate source of power generally includes one or more batteries supplying DC power which is converted by the UPS into AC power and provided to the electrical load during the backup mode of operation. The batteries are generally recharged by a battery charger coupled to the UPS that receives power provided to the UPS by the primary source of power.